Response of laterally loaded finned piles in sand

Abstract

This paper investigates the response of finned piles in sand subjected to static lateral load through laboratory tests and full-scale field tests. Firstly, model tests were carried out on free headed single piles of different shaft diameters with and without fins in sand to explore the performance of the piles under lateral loading. The results obtained from monotonic loading tests on three series of piles of three different combination of fins and pile shaft diameters were presented. The effect of fins on improving the stiffness and ultimate lateral capacity of the piles was discussed. An equivalent diameter was proposed for a finned pile, which enabled the experimental results to be back calculated using an available elasto-plastic solution for laterally loaded piles in sand. Secondly, field tests were conducted on laterally loaded Starfin screw piles in loose to medium dense sand. The proposed approach was then used for the analysis of the measured response of Starfin screw piles and further validated against measured test results from fully instrumented finned piles in overconsolidated dense sand. The results show that the proposed equivalent diameter and approach for the analysis of finned piles provided the most satisfactory match to the measured data, ranging from the initial elastic state to the ultimate limit state.